Mammoth graveyard may someday be open to public

Star-Telegram ^ | 9-20-07 | R.A. DYER

[Dysart]

WACO -- Not far from modest suburban homes in the middle of some thick Texas woods lies a secret boneyard.

Surrounded by a tall chain-link fence and covered by what looks like a red-and-white circus tent, the site contains the remains of towering monsters. Remains of at least 25 mammoths, signs of a big saber-toothed cat and a long extinct camel have been found at the site.

This is the Waco Mammoth Site, a collection of prehistoric fossils embedded in the dirt not far from the Bosque River. The site could be a potent educational resource if it were not off-limits to schoolchildren. It's been called a national treasure in the heart of Texas, but it remains closed to the public.

On Wednesday, reporters were allowed to tour the backwoods site, a rare event. Waco city leaders and curators from Baylor University are in the process of creating a new management plan for the site and hope to open it to the public soon. They are seeking public comment and financial support for the creation of a permanent structure to protect the fragile artifacts. That led to the media tour, although reporters had to agree not to disclose its exact location in order to protect the artifacts from looters.

"It's a nationally significant site for this time period. You don't find something like this anywhere else in the nation," said National Park Service official Russ Whitlock, who joined university and city officials at the site.

Unusual dig

"It's a wonderful site, it's amazing. I've worked at a lot of sites and you don't see places like this," said Anita Benedict, collections manager of the Mayborn Museum Complex at Baylor, which manages the site.

At the middle of the dig, which is sunk into the clay about two feet below a makeshift boardwalk, are the bones of a massive Columbian mammoth. Big, even for a mammoth, the bull probably stood 14 feet tall at the shoulders, which is about 30 percent larger than a modern-day elephant. Its 6-foot tusks are clearly visible, as are its ribs, a molar, and bones from its front and hind legs.

Benedict said that the bull was found with the remains of a calf in its tusks, as if it were attempting to lift the young mammoth from danger. She said a female mammoth was also found with a young calf in its tusks. One of the mammoths had a broken rib, which Benedict said appeared to indicate some sort of conflict with another mammoth.

"It looks like they got into a defensive circle," Benedict said. It's unclear, however, why they all died together and why the site contains such a rich collection of fossils.

"We're not sure what happened but there are hypotheses," she said. "There was a flood, they got trapped in the ravine and couldn't get out of it. The mud here is very sticky."

In all, 25 mammoths were found at the site, and more may remain buried, she said. The remains of 16 mammoths have been removed and are in storage at the Mayborn Museum. The museum features an exhibit duplicating the skeletal remains of the bull mammoth with the calf in its tusks.

Discovered in 1978

The site was discovered by a pair of amateur fossil hunters in 1978. They reported it to Baylor University, and by 1990 experts had identified, preserved and removed the remains of 15 mammoths. Later an additional 10 were found.

The fossils date back about 68,000 years to a time when central Texas had fewer trees and more grassland. One National Park Service expert said the area probably then seemed more like the Serengeti plains in Africa, and was probably a bit cooler and wetter.

Some of the proposed site management plans contemplate turning the site over to the federal government so it could become part of the National Park Service inventory. A 2002 law signed by President Bush calls for the completion of a study to determine how best to protect the resource, how best to allow public use, and the feasibility of adding it to the federal park system.

A National Park Service official estimated Wednesday that it could cost about $1.5 million annually to operate the site as park. But like the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the National Park Service has faced funding shortfalls and so may look to partner with local authorities.

Fundraising campaign

But even without the National Park Service's involvement, Baylor University and city officials hope to have the site open to the public on a limited basis within a year or so. A spokeswoman for Mayborn Museum at Baylor said supporters have so far raised more than $1 million in donations, which will be used for the construction of a building and restrooms.

The spokeswoman said boosters hope to raise a total of $2.3 million and then begin the painstaking process of building a structure that will help protect the bones without damaging the dig.

At the same time, officials conducting the special resource study should soon be reporting back to Congress about the feasibility of turning the Waco Mammoth Site over to the National Park Service.

[sevenbak]

Zats whatz zay zay.

[DavemeisterP]

The two kids that found it weren’t amateur fossil hunters, that’s BULL___T. Two kids, a boy and a girl, were exploring the woods when momma wasn’t watching and stumbled across bones sticking out of the back. If I remember right they were younger than me, and I was in 6th grade. I was in a group called the ‘Junior Naturalist Club’ at Baylor when a certain unnamed archaeologist came down to the basement where we were cleaning points from the Horn Rock Shelter and asked us if we wanted to go explore the woods to look for some bones. It sounded better than pruning up my hands, so why not? There were 7 or 8 of us, I think. One thing not mentioned in the paper was the alligator teeth we found that day, too. Also found one crude, worked, flint knife of some sort. It was kinda mixed in with the bones, but a little upstream.
Another thing, there are 2 or 3 separate sites stacked on each other. One is deep down next to the lowest observation deck. Back when it was a ravine, there was a deep cut hole that dropped off there and bones were sticking out of near the bottom. Don’t know if those have ever been dug yet. They had been covered over by silt during a flood Waco had several years ago, and as of my last visit there, they were still several feet beneath the level of the current level of the creek.
Mammoth bones are found all throughout the area of that site in gravel pits, and those gravel pits get shut down if anyone finds out they found anything. It’s just a layer of gravel that runs up and down the Brazos River. Bones are all in it. Worked flint sometimes too.

[DavemeisterP]

Something else, I found a 68 million year old turtle in a gravel pit, not 2 miles from there.

The whole area also used to be beachfront property a long, long time ago. There are dinosaur footprints all up the Brazos and Puluxy Rivers north of Waco, too.

[TruthConquers]

WOW. Thanks for the extra insight. Never can trust those journalists to get it right.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

I wasn’t around then, so I can’t give a precise date. The geological record seems to indicate about 10,000 or so years ago.

Thank you.

Interestingly, this roughly corresponds to the same period that Dr. Robert Schoch theorized that a great flood occurred in Egypt. (See: Sphix Studies)

[PAR35]

Evidence from the Black Sea does point to a slightly more recent date - say 7600 years ago.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Evidence from the Black Sea does point to a slightly more recent date - say 7600 years ago.

Geologic evidence?

If so, then there's a discrepancy of 1400 or so years.

And according to sevenbak's interpretation, which somewhat agrees with what I've heard over the years, the great flood occurred 2500-2300 B.C.

So, it's better to say that we don't really know when the flood of Noah occurred, isn't it?

[VOA]

bump

[DavemeisterP]

Every time I read anything written about the mammoths, journalists get something wrong in the story. I’ve read that the two kids were adults, amatuer fossilhunters...ROFL, teenagers, two boys, two girls, Baylor University, a landowner, and a few other variances of all of those. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard it told right once. I have even heard officials from Baylor, on the news, explaining the story and getting it wrong. I’m beginning to wonder if anyone even remembers or cares. There was one girl that was there and might be on this forum. Last I heard, I think she was a Marine Biologist in Galveston, TX. I believe her name was Selina? I know her last name, but I won’t post it. If you’re out there, speak up, I know you have quite a few interesting stories to tell as well.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!